Clean cooking
Over 2.5 billion people still lack access to clean cooking solutions, leading to serious health, environmental and economic challenges. Traditional fuels like wood and charcoal contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, while exposure to indoor air pollution disproportionately affects women and children.
A transition to modern, renewable, clean cooking solutions is crucial to achieving SDG 7 (affordable, reliable, sustainable energy) and SDG 13 (climate action), along with other related SDGs. Bioenergy solutions can foster local value chains for biomass production and clean cookstoves and diversify farmer incomes. They also enhance food security and improve nutrition. Moreover, the transition to clean cooking addresses gender inequalities tied to fuel collection and hazardous cooking conditions, improving lives in both domestic and institutional settings.
GBEP's role
In 2024, global investments in clean cooking technologies gained momentum. This includes G7 commitments, clean cooking as a priority for the G20 Presidency in Brazila and Azerbaijan's COP29 Presidency. The Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa (2024) resulted in a USD 2.2 billion investment commitment for clean cooking across the continent.
GBEP has long recognized clean cooking as a critical global challenge. At GBEP's 30th Steering Committee Meeting in November 2024, members agreed to form a dedicated clean cooking group within the WGCB to gather efforts related to bioenergy solutions, including improved feedstocks, biogas, bioethanol and microgasification.
GBEP supports countries in transitioning to clean cooking by offering sustainability assessments, policy engagement and leveraging expertise from its global partners.
Scope of work
The Activity Group 9 on clean cooking focuses on the following key areas:
- Sustainability of bioenergy value chains for clean cooking
- Stakeholder engagement across value chains
- Integration of clean cooking into nutrition and SDG7 discussions
- Advocacy for clean cooking in climate policies (NDCs, LTSs, and NAPs)
- Leveraging climate finance for clean cooking projects
- Exploring intersections between clean cooking and heating
- Promoting clean cooking as a gender issue and part of a just energy transition
Planned activities
- Case study report on bioenergy’s role in agrifood systems and health (February 2025)
- Paper on bioethanol for clean cooking in Asia and Africa (August 2025)
- Awareness-raising sessions at GBEP Bioenergy Week on topics such as gender, nutrition and education
- Stakeholder dialogues to share best practices and lessons learned
- Partnerships with humanitarian agencies to support sustainable energy in crisis settings
- Bioenergy and Food Security Assessment to identify local solutions for clean cooking
- Piloting GBEP’s Rapid Implementation Framework for clean cooking value chains.
The Activity Group is co-led by Uganda and the United Nations Environment Programme, coordinating efforts to ensure effective implementation.
Related pages
Bioethanol as a clean cooking fuel in Africa and Asia
Traditional use of biomass for cooking can have harmful effects on people’s health and wellbeing, and the environment, leading to increased emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants, poor indoor air quality and deforestation. Ethanol cookstoves have recently emerged as a valuable and widely accepted bioenergy option for clean cooking.
Ethanol is a plant-based alternative that could be produced from crop residues or dedicated crops in marginalized land, without affecting food production. Ethanol cookstoves have several benefits, such as improved indoor air quality and reduced emissions, but their widespread adoption in developing countries faces challenges: limited infrastructure, high costs, and limited awareness about the need for high quality and safety standards for both ethanol cookstoves and fuel.